TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
13 June 2024
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
New Agroecological Designs to Improve Crop Productivity and Resilience
Agriculture is being undermined by the ecological toll of modern agriculture. Paradoxically, modern agroecosystems are also highly vulnerable to climate variability, which is a major threat to the long-term sustainability of food production systems. A major transformative change in agricultural design and management is needed.
The challenge is to transition agroecosystems based on inputs, to one dependent on ecological processes. The task for agroecologists lies in the design of new agroecosystems that potentiate the beneficial above and below ground biodiversity interactions at the farm and landscape level, so that soil quality, plant health, crop productivity and resilience emerge.
The article below explains how diversified cropping systems, such as crop rotation, strip intercropping, cover crops especially those including legumes, organic no-till farming and perennialization enhance food production and resilience while reducing input dependence and environmental impacts. The agroecological aim is to enhance food provisioning through practices aimed at increasing several ecosystem services including soil fertility, pollination, and natural pest control. It concludes that as diversity increases, so do opportunities for beneficial interactions between species, benefitting agroecosystem sustainability.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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UNLEASHING BIOTIC INTERACTIONS THROUGH AGROECOLOGICAL DESIGNS TO STABILIZE CROP PRODUCTIVITY AND ENHANCE RESILIENCE
Altieri MA and Nicholls CI.
J Agri Res 2023, 8(4): 000337
https://www.medwinpublishers.com/OAJAR/unleashing-biotic-interactions-through-agroecological-designs-to-stabilize-crop-productivity-and-enhance-resilience.pdf
10 Nov 2023
Abstract
In a planet under polycrisis (climate change, high input costs, ecological degradation, armed conflicts, etc.) the challenge is to transition agroecosystems based on external inputs to one dependent on ecological processes. This will require agroecologists to test new diversification designs that will potentiate beneficial above and below ground biodiversity interactions at the farm and landscape level, so that soil quality, plant health, productivity and resilience emerge from processes such as optimized soil biological activation, nutrient cycling and biological pest regulation. Such approach enhances resiliency to biotic and abiotic stresses and increases farmers ecological, genetic, water, energy, technological and food sovereignty.
Conclusions
Exploiting the advantages of beneficial biodiversity mediated interactions in agroecosystems requires a process of conversion from a high-input monoculture management system to a diversified system with low or no external inputs. The agroecological aim is to enhance food provisioning through practices aimed at increasing several ecosystem services including soil fertility, pollination, and natural pest control. A complex community of functional organisms (soil biota, antagonists, beneficial insects, etc.) in an agroecosystem is favored by enhanced plant diversity, leading to more interactions among associated arthropods and microorganisms which are part of above and below ground food webs. As diversity increases, so do opportunities for beneficial interactions between species, benefitting agroecosystem sustainability.